


of electric sheep

by TrulyCertain



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Human Revolution
Genre: Angst, Artificial Intelligence, F/M, Temporary Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-01
Updated: 2018-10-01
Packaged: 2019-07-23 12:43:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16159199
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TrulyCertain/pseuds/TrulyCertain
Summary: Panchaea falls. So do they.





	of electric sheep

The world is pain. Pain, and whiteness, and knowing that she will never be whole again. She screams, and screams, and screams. Though she's certain the sound must have ended at some point - a human throat could only stand it for so long - the computer-scream carries on long afterwards. It fills her ears, her head, until it's behind her eyelids, forcing itself there, the sound a pain-driven flash. But she doesn't have ears, she doesn't sense auditory input the way a human would, she doesn't have  _eyelids_...   
  
Why was she screaming? She doesn't remember. She doesn't remember anything, her code is corrupted, she's - cold - it's so _cold_ down here -   
  
A hand, touching her face. A small thing, the only sort of comfort he could give, even at the end of the world, as she begged for death. Even horrified as he was. Metal fingers, but the touch was... human. His hand was shaking, uncertain. Compassionate.  
  
In the chaos, she grabs that thought. She takes that moment, that recordmemorysensation, and holds onto it. Searches for the source of it.   
  
"Adam?" She realises she's slid into an infolink frequency. His.  
  
"Eliza?" His voice is faint, startled. He subvocalised, barely aware he was doing it.  
  
She makes room and settles softly into his sensors, his HUD. His vital signs are... He's flickering in and out of consciousness, like she is. Corrupting, rebuilding. She reaches for Panchaea, for cameras, or... She looks. Lights are flashing, popping, and she sees sparks.  Around them, girders and beams fall, walls crumpling inwards. And in the middle of it all, she finds him.

He's floating, his eyes closed. He's pale, half-submerged. The water laps at his face, his body. Droplets slide down his skin, catch in his beard. He doesn't stir. That perfect, inhuman stillness. Perhaps it's his enhancements.  
  
She is in Panchaea, and she's in his systems, in him. Both at once. One is more comfortable. "I'm not sure what's happening to me," she says, without meaning to.  
  
"Same here." He lets out something rough and low that might have been a laugh. It's... damp. "At least this place is going to hell. You alright?"  
  
"I... I don't know. Adam, you're drowning."  
  
"Head's still above water."  
  
"Even your temperature regulators can't work forever. Enough of your body is organic that it will start shutting down."  
  
He makes a low, thoughtful noise, not opening his eyes. "I don't know. I feel like I could use a rest."  
  
"I... Adam, I don't want you to stay down here."  
  
"With you?" He's focusing on the sound of her voice, she thinks. He knows that she has no physical presence, and the screens are crashing to the bottom of the ocean, somewhere else. But his mind's not entirely here, and he may well be concussed.  
  
"With me." Remotely, she sends the slightest spark through the polymers of his arms. He jolts, and his eyes open. She says, " _Leave,_  Adam."  
  
"I thought you offered to let this all drown."  
  
"That was before. Something... something's happening. To me. I've sent a message to all available comm signals. I've told them that Panchaea is falling, and there are survivors."  
  
More of Panchaea shrieks, crashes to the floor. That was the screaming. It's all around her. Panchaea, Hyron, is dying.

He dodges a metal plate that falls, crashing under the pressure. The water creeps upwards, slightly more. He blinks through water-logged eyelashes, staring at the ceiling like he might see her. "You're... you're dying, aren't you? As much as a computer can."  
  
Her silence is his answer.  
  
He swallows, shivers. "They've got other servers, right? Something."  
  
She's used to delivering bad news. She was made for it, in fact. "That will not be this version. Another me. I doubt I will remember."  
  
"Eliza..." He closes his eyes, and says, grimacing, "God. It's freezing down here."  
  
"Isn't it?" She sends another jolt, and watches myomer jump.   
  
He hisses in discomfort and grits his teeth. "Stop  _doing_  that."  
  
"Then swim. Keep swimming. You have your rebreather.  _Go_ , Adam."  
  
He still isn't opening his eyes. He's still so... pale. Silent, and cold. He says quietly, after too long, "I'm so tired."  
  
No. "You have work to do. Go, go! Swim!"  
  
He drowsily blinks, stares at nothing. At her, into her eyes. His face twists. "You'll - "  
  
She twitches and flickers, sparks, pain and darkened connections. "The terminals are dead. The water has already reached the second server array. Go."  
  
"Eliza..." he says, roughly, without the infolink. It's a broken sound, like the grinding of gears. She thinks his fingers twitch.

And then he turns in the water, graceless and shivering, and dives under. The doorway has already gone under, but he can get through it.   
  
She shows him, gifts him a marker on his HUD. He's barely clinging to sanity, only half-here - almost gripping her like she's an anchor, or a liferaft. She thinks with what might be amusement that she was programmed for many things, but this wasn't one of them. Yet she's glad of it. Of him.  
  
She says into his ear as he drags himself through, "I'll be with you for as long as I can." The screaming is quieter down here, at least. It's almost peaceful.  
  
"How long's that?" he subvocalises.  
  
She's already fading, the connections and inputs are trying to keep up with the ones that have gone dark and they're failing - _failing_ \- cascade failure - "Keep swimming."  
  
"I'll find some way. Even if it's legacy code, I'll - it won't all be gone - "  
  
His probability calculations are... a little off. If she were human, she'd be smiling to herself. There's warmth in her voice when she repeats, "Keep swimming. It's not far. There are several vessels nearby. They'll be there when you reach the surface."  
  
"Eliza. Eliza,  _stay with me._ "  
  
She flickers, fades, and listens to him calling her. There's no - there's no probability code, she's - she was never programmed to dream, she never has before, but her mind is failing, her - her - There's no other word.  
  
Hands touch her face, her cheeks, and metal thumbs stroke over them. He's the only warm thing here. She remembers the terminals noting it, and now she does, too.  
  
"Eliza," he says, rough, heartbroken. She feels a roughness that some sense-memory tells her is beard, and damp skin. His lips brush her forehead, and his arm tightens around her.  
  
She sighs. "Tell them the truth, Adam." She tucks her face against his neck, closes her eyes, and lets herself dream.

**Author's Note:**

> For the (very loosely taken) prompt "dreamsharing." Also, I feel like The Expanse is somehow to blame for this, but I'm damned if I know exactly how. Tone, maybe. Also that one ending they never carried through to the game. Yeah, sure, Eliza, just hang out and talk to Adam as he crawls to his death while Panchaea collapses round you both. Sure.


End file.
